The present invention relates to a novel material for substrate of magnetic disks widely used in various kinds of computers, in particular to a glass-ceramic material, and a process for producing the same.
In recent years, with the development of magnetic head and magnetic recording layer technology, great improvements for high-density recording and high-speed reading/writing have been achieved, and the demands for better performances of disk substrates are becoming stronger.
In order to increase the recording density of a magnetic disk, the bit density and track density of the magnetic disk have to be increased. This makes the magnetic head become further closer to the disk surface. In this connection, an amount of the head floating from the magnetic disk is decreased to the order of 0.025 microns, so that the surface roughness of the magnetic disk should be 10 Angstroms or less and the disk surface should be very resistive to wear in order to withstand the contact with the magnetic head.
The capability of high-speed of reading/writing currently renders hard disks as a very important device widely used for the purpose of memory and the like. With evolvement of higher density of recording and faster speed for information handling of CPU and the like of a computer, there exist a requirement to correspondingly increase the reading/writing speed of a hard disk, and consequently to increase the rotary speed of the disk. At the present time, a hard disk with a rotary speed of ten thousands revolutions per minute or higher has been market available, and such a high rotary speed inevitably demand a disk substrate with better mechanical properties.
Aluminum alloys have heretofore been used for magnetic disc substrate, but the aluminum alloy substrate tends to give a surface roughness of substantially higher than 10 Angstroms by a polishing process. Furthermore, it is necessary to increase the thickness of disk substrate so as to prevent it from deformation due to the fact that aluminum alloys are soft materials. As a result, an aluminum alloy is insufficient to satisfy the recent requirements for a hard disk substrate.
In order to overcome the defects inherent in aluminum alloys, chemically strengthened glass has been proposed to give a substrate with high hardness, high elastic modulus, small deformation and excellent in surface smoothness after processing. Despite of these, chemically strengthened glass normally has certain amount of alkali components such as Na+ in its matrix, and the alkali components may adversely affect the magnetic recording layer during the process of producing the same due to alkali migration into the magnetic recording layer. As a result a barrier layer must be applied onto the substrate before applying the magnetic recording layer, which adds to the production cost. In addition, current hard disks tend to be small-sized and thus require the substrate be thinner; however, chemically strengthened glass is instable in the strengthened layer when thinning of the disk is intended. In an attempt to provide a glass substrate for magnetic disks, U.S. Pat. No. 5,691,256 disclosed a glass composition for magnetic disk substrates, which demonstrated improvement properties after subjected to chemically strengthening by ion exchange of the glass or crystallizing the glass by heat-treatment. Although the resulting materials showed an overall improved performance, the composition still contained a substantially amount of alkali components, and the mechanical properties could be further enhanced.
Glass-ceramic has been known in the art to be used for disk substrates as to alleviate the drawbacks of the aluminum alloy substrates and the chemically strengthened glass substrates. Various glass-ceramic compositions have been proposed. For example, all the glass-ceramic systems disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,391,522, 5,567,217 and 5,626,935 contain lithium disilicate (Li2Oxc2x72SiO2) and alpha-quartz as their main crystal phases. However, these glass-ceramics are inferior due to the fact that surface roughness (Ra) after polishing is a relative large value (i.e. 15-50 Angstroms) and doesn""t satisfy the new requirement on the surface roughness of a substrate for magnetic disk (i.e. less than 10 Angstroms). Besides, the mechanical property of these glass-ceramics is not very good and needs to be further improved so as to satisfy the increasing requirements on the mechanical property of the substrate of magnetic disk.
Glass-ceramics intended for use as substrates of magnetic disks comprising a main crystal phase other than lithium disilicate (Li2Oxc2x72SiO2) are also proposed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,561,089 disclosed a glass-ceramic having a main crystal phase of gahnite. The degree of surface roughness of the polished glass-ceramic is within a range of from 0.5 to 9.0 Angstroms. U.S. Pat. No. 5,726,108 disclosed a glass-ceramic containing at least one selected from the group consisting of mullite and aluminum borate as its main crystal phases. Japanese Patent application Laid-open No. 2000-169184 and 2000-169186 disclosed in their abstracts a glass-ceramic for substrate of magnetic disk having enstatite and/or beta-quartz solid solution as the predominant crystal phases. But all the glass-ceramics proposed in these prior art documents are either poor in the mechanical property or need high processing temperature (such as melting temperature, clarifying temperature, nucleation and crystallization temperature) in order to produce these glass-ceramics. There still exist a need for a glass-ceramic suitable for use as substrate of magnetic disk having higher strength and which can be fabricated by a relative economic process.
An object of the present invention is to eliminate various disadvantages involved in the above described prior art, and to provide a novel glass-ceramic with much improved bending strength that can be polished to a surface roughness of 10 Angstroms or less. Furthermore, the glass-ceramic of present invention can be fabricated with a reduced cost and is suitable for use as substrate of magnetic disks. Another object of the present invention is to provide a process for producing the glass-ceramic and a substrate of magnetic disk made of the glass-ceramic.
In one aspect, the present invention provides a glass-ceramic for substrate of magnetic disk having high strength, wherein the glass-ceramic is of Li2Oxe2x80x94SiO2xe2x80x94P2O5xe2x80x94Y2O3 system glass-ceramic and can be obtained by subjecting to heat treatment a base glass which consists essentially of in weight percent: from 65% to 80.0% of SiO2, from 0.5% to 5.0% of Al2O3, from 13.0% to 19.0% of Li2O, from 1.0% to 7.0% of P2O5, from 0.5% to 10.0% of Y2O3 and from 0.2% to 2.0% of at least one of Sb2O3 and As2O3, and the glass-ceramic comprises Li2Oxc2x72SiO2 as the main crystal phase.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the crystal phase of the glass-ceramic of the invention is composed of spherical grains or aggregated spherical grains, and the size of the spherical grains or aggregated spherical grains is controlled to the range from 0.1-1.0 micron by heat treatment.
According to a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the glass-ceramic of the invention has been subjected to a lapping and finally polishing process which produces a surface roughness (Ra) of less than 10 Angstroms.
According to another preferred embodiment of the invention, the glass-ceramic of the invention has a bending strength between 230 and 360 MPa measured in accordance with the National Standards for Testing Ceramic Materials of China (GB6569-86).
In another aspect, the present invention provide a economic process for producing the glass-ceramic for substrate of magnetic disk having high strength, comprising the steps of:
(a) Melting at a temperature within a range from 1300xc2x0 C. to 1370xc2x0 C. the base glass of the glass-ceramic with a composition of, in terms of weight percent of their oxides, from 65% to 80.0% of SiO2, from 0.5% to 5.0% of Al2O3, from 13.0% to 19.0% of Li2O, from 1.0% to 7.0% of P2O5, from 0.5% to 10.0% of Y2O3 and from 0.2% to 2.0% of at least one of Sb2O3 and As2O3;
(b) Clarifying the glass composition at a temperature within a range from 1350xc2x0 C. to 1450xc2x0 C.;
(c) Forming the molten glass into a desired shape;
(d) Heating the glass at a nucleation temperature within a range from 460xc2x0 C. to 560xc2x0 C. for 1 to 10 hours;
(e) Heating the glass at a crystallization temperature within a range from 580xc2x0 C. to 750xc2x0 C. for 0.5 to 10 hours.
The base glass of the present glass-ceramic may further comprise, in terms of weight percent of their oxides, from 0 to 5.0% of La2O3, from 0 to 3.0% of TiO2, from 0 to 3.0% of ZrO2, from 0 to 3.0% of SnO2, from 0 to 3.0% of MgO and from 0 to 2.0% of ZnO.
According to another preferred embodiment of the invention, the process for producing the glass-ceramic of the invention may further include a step (f): lapping and finally polishing the glass-ceramic to produce a surface roughness of less than 10 Angstroms.
In another aspect, the invention provides a substrate of magnetic disk having high strength made of a glass-ceramic, wherein the glass-ceramic is of Li2Oxe2x80x94SiO2xe2x80x94P2O5xe2x80x94Y2O3 system glass-ceramic and can be obtained by subjecting to heat treatment a base glass which consists essentially of in weight percent: from 65% to 80.0% of SiO2, from 0.5% to 5.0% of Al2O3, from 13.0% to 19.0% of Li2O, from 1.0% to 7.0% of P2O5, from 0.5% to 10.0% of Y2O3 and from 0.2% to 2.0% of at least one of Sb2O3 and As2O3, and the glass-ceramic comprises Li2Oxc2x72SiO2 as the main crystal phase. Preferably, the substrate has a surface roughness of less than 10 Angstroms and a bending strength between 230 and 360 MPa measured in accordance with the National Standards for Testing Ceramic Materials of China (GB6569-86).
The present invention consists in that the base glass of the glass-ceramic precludes K2O and comprises Y2O3 and Al2O3 as indispensable components such that the composition of the base glass comprises, in terms of weight percent of their oxides, from 65% to 80.0% of SiO2, from 0.5% to 5.0% of Al2O3, from 13.0% to 19.0% of Li2O, from 1.0% to 7.0% of P2O5, from 0.5% to 10.0% of Y2O3 and from 0.2% to 2.0% of at least one of Sb2O3 and As2O3. The present glass-ceramic can be obtained by melting the base glass composition at a temperature within a range from 1300xc2x0 C. to 1370xc2x0 C. and subsequently clarifying the glass composition at a temperature within a range from 1350xc2x0 C. to 1450xc2x0 C.; forming the molten glass into a desired shape; heating the glass at a nucleation temperature within a range from 460xc2x0 C. to 560xc2x0 C. for 1 to 10 hours; and then heating the glass at a crystallization temperature within a range from 580xc2x0 C. to 750xc2x0 C. for 0.5 to 10 hours.
The resulting glass-ceramic after heat-treatment is of Li2Oxe2x80x94SiO2xe2x80x94P2O5xe2x80x94Y2O3 system glass-ceramics and comprises Li2Oxc2x72SiO2 as the main crystal phase. Preferably, the crystal of the glass-ceramic is composed of spherical grains or aggregated spherical grains, and the size of the spherical grains or aggregated spherical grains is controlled to a range of from 0.1 to 1.0 micron by heat treatment, and the glass-ceramic has a bending strength between 230 and 360 Mpa measured in accordance with the National Standard for Testing Ceramic Materials of China (GB6569-86). Preferably, the glass-ceramic of the invention has a surface roughness less than 10 Angstroms after lapping and finally polishing process which is conventionally used in producing the substrate of magnetic disk.
In spite of not wishing to be bound to specific theory, it is believed that introduction of Y2O3 into the glass composition of the present invention while precluding the presence of K2O can producing the following advantages: (1) increasing the bending strength and elastic modulus of the glass-ceramic, (2) increasing the content of Li2O and the content of the main crystal phase lithium disilicate (Li2Oxc2x72SiO2) as well, (3) lowering the melting temperature or the clarifying temperature by 50xc2x0 C. to 100xc2x0 C. relative to that of a glass-ceramic of a similar type. As a result, the melting temperature of present glass-ceramic is within a range from 1300xc2x0 C. to 1370xc2x0 C. and clarifying temperature thereof is within a range from 1350xc2x0 C. to 1450xc2x0 C., all of these contribute to reduce the energy consumption for the production of the glass-ceramic, and to further lower the demand to the production equipments, and consequently the glass-ceramic substrate for magnetic disk can be provided with a competitive price.
SiO2 is an essential component for the glass-ceramic to obtain a main crystal phase of Li2Oxc2x72SiO2 by heat-treatment. If the content of SiO2 is less than 65.0%, crystals are precipitated in the glass in uncontrolled manner such that a high quality of surface roughness can""t be obtained; while if its content is more than 80.0%, it is very much difficult to melt the base glass.
Li2O is also an essential component for the glass-ceramic to obtain a main crystal phase of Li2Oxc2x72SiO2 by heat-treatment. If the content of Li2O is less than 13.0%, it is very easy to crystallize the glass and a higher temperature will be necessary to melt the glass composition which give rise to an increased production cost; while if its content is more than 19.0%, the chemical stability and hardness of the resulting glass-ceramic is adversely lowered and the crystallization process can not be controlled with ease.
Al2O3 is an essential component to improve the chemical stability of the present glass-ceramic. If the content of Al2O3 is less than 0.5%, the chemical stability of the glass-ceramic is deteriorated; while if its content is more than 5.0%, the glass may crystallize uncontrollably during the heat-treatment process whereby giving very coarse grains, and a desired quality of surface roughness can not be obtained.
P2O5 is also indispensable to serve as nucleation agent. If the content of P2O5 is less than 1.0%, the base glass is crystallized to give only a fewer number of coarse grains, whereby a desired quality of surface roughness can not be obtained; while if its content is more than 7.0%, the glass is tend to be devitrified during forming. As a result, the glass may crystallize uncontrollably during the subsequent heat-treatment processes.
Y2O3 is an indispensable component to improve the properties of the present glass-ceramic. If the content of Y2O3 is less than 0.5%, the beneficial effect thereof is not sufficient, and the crystallization process cannot be controlled with ease; while if its content is more than 10.0%, the glass is crystallized to give coarse grains, whereby a desired quality of surface roughness can not be obtained and the cost of raw materials is undesirably raised.
Sb2O3 and/or As2O3 are also indispensable to serve as clarifying agent. In this connection, the contents of at least one selected from Sb2O3 and As2O3 should be within a range form 0.2 to 2.0%.
In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the glass composition further contains, in terms of weight percent of their oxides, from 0 to 5.0% of La2O3, from 0 to 3.0% of TiO2, from 0 to 3.0% of ZrO2, from 0 to 3.0% of SnO2, from 0 to 3.0% of MgO and from 0 to 2.0% of ZnO, provided that the desired properties of the glass-ceramic are not impaired.
In the process for producing the glass-ceramic according to the invention, base glass of the glass-ceramic is melted at a temperature within a range from 1300xc2x0 C. to 1370xc2x0 C. and its clarifying temperature falls within a range from 1350xc2x0 C. to 1450xc2x0 C., wherein the melting temperature is 50xc2x0 C. to 100xc2x0 C. lower than that of a glass-ceramic of a similar type. The glass can be heated to produce a crystal nucleus at a nucleation temperature within a range from 460xc2x0 C. to 560xc2x0 C. for 1 to 10 hours and further heating for crystallization can be effected at a crystallization temperature within a range from 580xc2x0 C. to 750xc2x0 C. for 0.5 to 10 hours.
The advantages of the present glass-ceramic and process thereof compared with the prior art glass-ceramic of same system and its production process will be more apparent to a person skilled in the art by referring to the following examples and comparative examples.